Connecting Engineering Tools Through Semantic and API-Based Integration

Abstract

Early phases of space missions rely on diverse engineering tools that often share similar data structures and domains but lack interoperability. As a result, data exchange between tools typically requires manual effort or custom-built converters, limiting efficient collaboration and reuse of design data. This paper proposes the concept of a Semantic Adapter to enable flexible and automated data exchange between heterogeneous engineering tools without tool-specific adaptions. The approach combines OpenAPI, as a standardized way to access and exchange tool data, with a mapping and model transformation algorithm that aligns and converts data between different tool-specific models. The concept was demonstrated and evaluated in a case study involving two concurrent engineering centers collaborating on a joint space mission study. The evaluation shows that the Semantic Adapter enables automated data retrieval and transformation, demonstrating the general feasibility of combining API specifications and model transformations for engineering data exchange. However, results also indicate that automatically writing transformed data to target tools via OpenAPI remains a challenge, especially when dealing with complex, dynamically typed models. The paper concludes by discussing limitations and directions for future work.